Preschool Celebrates Birthday

Noah's Ark Center Is 25

November 12, 2010|By AMANDA FALCONE, afalcone@courant.com

WEST HARTFORD — — The Noah's Ark preschool will celebrate its 25th anniversary tonight with a Havdalah service and a soup bar social.

The Noah's Ark Pre-School and Early Care and Education Center, at Congregation Beth Israel on Farmington Avenue, remains the only synagogue-based early care and preschool program in Greater Hartford, according to the center's director, Susan Z. Finkle.

When Noah's Ark opened in September 1985, it had just a dozen students and only accepted children 3 years old or younger.

The center has grown over the years. Noah's Ark now educates about 70 students from all backgrounds. Its students are between the ages of 6 weeks and 5 years old, and it has 20 employees and seven classrooms.

The center is a nonprofit organization affiliated with Beth Israel, and Finkle said tuition and fundraising efforts keep it going.

For students under 3, tuition is $305 a week. The cost is $285 for children ages 3 and 4. A half-day option is also available for the older students at $50 a day.

Noah's Ark gives Beth Israel, the largest synagogue in the area and the oldest in the state, the opportunity to offer services to all temple members, no matter their age, said Rabbi Michael Pincus, whose three children go to Noah's Ark.

The center provides "a sense of home," and the teachers put their heart and soul into the place, he said, adding that students are taught how to be a good person.

Tonight's celebration starts at 5:30 p.m. Anyone associated with Noah's Ark over the past 25 years is invited to attend. Finkle said she always looks forward to seeing her former students.

"It's a really good feeling," she said of seeing her former students all grown up. "I love what I do."